Federico Chiesa could be a potential contender for involvement in Liverpool’s upcoming Champions League clash with AC Milan.
The Merseysiders are due to face the European giants on Tuesday in their opener for the competition’s new league format.
Vinny O’Connor was sent to the AXA training centre to assess the landscape ahead of the game and noted that the Italian international was looking ‘relatively sharp’ in team training.
“What he’s been doing during the international break, he was working with the U21s, building up his fitness. Last week when we spoke to Arne Slot, he said Chiesa had been able to train with the main first-team group around three or four times,” the Sky journalist told Sky Sports on X.
“He was out there again today, he looked relatively sharp as well. It will be something the Liverpool coach needs to weigh up.
“To be fair to Chiesa, he’s got history against AC Milan. January 2021, he scored two in a 3-1 win for Juventus, that was his last time there. For Fiorentina, he either scored or provided an assist in each of his four appearances away to Milan (three assists and two goals in that time as well).
“The thing for Arne Slot is he has all of his forward options available to him at the moment, so Salah, Jota, Diaz, Nunez and Gakpo. So when they talk about that decision that has to be made, they will talk about his relative fitness, his relative sharpness before seeing whether or not he can break into that five now.”
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The 26-year-old (on a reported £150,000-a-week, according to Capology) has yet to feature for Arne Slot’s men since his £12.5m summer switch from the Italian top-flight.
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Will Federico Chiesa start against AC Milan?
As has been rightly noted already, Slot is hardly short of quality options to select from in his forward line.
Mind, we didn’t necessarily see evidence of that in an appalling showing against Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
Nonetheless, even when paying a visit to the historic San Siro, we’d be stunned if Liverpool failed to score across two consecutive games.
Chiesa’s record, whilst certainly more than impressive, simply won’t figure into the decision. Realistically, we reckon the Italy international will be limited to a cameo if anything on his return to Italy on Tuesday.
What a start to his Liverpool career it would be to keep up his positive record against the Rossoneri should he be given the chance to make his way onto the pitch tomorrow night.
Top photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images
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